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If you take technology and urbanisation out of the equation, what are you left with? Manjul Bhargava says the answer can be found in classics

Fields Medal winner Manjul Bhargava considers himself a product of the Indian liberal arts tradition, having learnt mathematics through Sanskrit poetry and Indian music. Not surprisingly, on his most-influenced-by book list are classics that married science and aesthetics, long before it was fashionable to say that a beautiful brain is one which has the right and left in sync.

“All the modern stuff doesn’t go to the core problems that humans used to think about,” said Bhargava. “We’ve come so far since that early human thinking that a lot of the basic thinking is covered by this layer of technology and modernisation and urbanisation. Sometimes we forget about the core issues that humans would think about if we weren’t born in this busy, urbanised, technological world. Classics really give us a glimpse into the core human questions and values.”

A look at Bhargava’s top five picks.

'Shulba Sutras' by Baudhayana “It goes back to 800 BC and was perhaps the first place where the Pythagorean theorem comes up. Just learning geometry there, in this artistic way is something that I think India should bring back,” Bhargava said. The Shulba Sutras are part of a larger corpus of texts called the Shrauta Sutras, considered to be appendices to the Vedas. They are believed to be the only sources of knowledge of Indian mathematics from the Vedic period. Mathematics is discussed in the texts via information on constructing unique firealtar shapes meant to appease specific deities or to receive certain boons.

'Chandrasastra' by Pingala Another classic that has influenced the mathematician, this book presents the first known description of a binary numeral system in connection with the systematic enumeration of metres with fixed patterns of short and long syllables. It is said that traces of Fibonacci sequences, named after the Italian mathematician’s work published in the year 1202, can actually be found in Pingala’s work from 200 BC.

'Ashtadhyayi' by Panini “Another place where language and maths are combined in a way that really inspired me,” said Bhargava. A 400-500 BC work (by different estimates), Panini’s Ashtadhyayi is characterised as a book concerning linguistics, and expounding a scientific theory of grammar, that laid the foundation of classical Sanskrit.

“He also came from a musical family and made some of the greatest discoveries in mathematics. That was a book that I really loved. I read it when I was in high school. It really inspired me and made me believe that maybe I can do both maths and music,” said Bhargava.

“It is a book that talks about how [the practice of] music, art and logic [is similar]. That was another book that I loved,” said Bhargava. The book explores common themes in the lives and works of logician Kurt Gödel, artist MC Escher, and composer Johann Sebastian Bach and thus, expounds concepts fundamental to mathematics, symmetry and intelligence.

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